Jim Dalrymple.com

I hate feeling like this. My chest is all tight and I feel like I’m coughing up a lung.

Wow, what a rough week that was. I knew last weekend that I was starting to get sick, but it turned into one of those sicknesses where all of your bones ache and you just want to sleep all the time.

I was alone for much of the week at MacCentral, which made things even worse. Peter was in New York, so I did the majority of the writing and posting, but all I really wanted to do is sleep.

I sat in my favorite chair with a blanket over me and my computer on my lap. Monday was bad, but Tuesday was the worst. That just happened to be the day that Apple and Nike launched their new products and Quark announced the release of QuarkXPress 7.

I’m feeling pretty good now though. I still have a cough and my right ear is plugged a bit, but it’s a hell of a lot better than this time last week.

Well, after spending the afternoon in the hospital Monique is home with yet another prescription – this one should fix her eyes by tomorrow. I would be happy about this except for the other things the doctor said.

I was pretty excited for her until she told me the story of what happened with the doctor. When he looked at her eyes he said:

Doctor: When did this start?

Monique: 5 weeks ago

Doctor: How long have you had it?

WTF are you talking about, you idiot!

Monique looks at him and says:

Monique: Since the start of May

Doctor: (Counts the number of weeks on his fingers) Wow, that’s a long time!

Monique: Do you know what it is?

Doctor: Yes!

Doctor: Well, no. I know what it isn’t.

Oh goodie, I’ll give you a cracker!

At any rate, the doctor then told her it was some non-infectious thing that I can’t even say, let alone spell.

Nicole left on an end of the year school trip today. She didn’t go far; there is a camp about an hour away that she went to with about 100 other kids. Damn glad I’m not a chaperone on that trip! Monique drove some of the equipment and bags down for the school, but unfortunately ended up in the hospital on the way home.

Monique’s sickness that I talked about last week hasn’t improved any. On the way home, her eyesight got so blurry, she had trouble seeing the road. I would have gone to get her, but we don’t have a second car and I had no way to get to her.

She called and said she was going to wait at the doctor’s office until she could get in to see someone – not the best way to spend an afternoon, but this has got to be fixed!

The doctor took one look at her eyes and into the hospital she went to see a specialist. Why the hell didn’t that happen before this?!

So, she is now in the hospital and we are waiting to hear back from the doctor. Hopefully it will be good news – we could both sure use some.

For weeks now – actually months – Monique hasn’t been feeling well. When we were in San Francisco last week here eyes were bloodshot the entire trip. In addition to that she has a headache that just won’t go away.

The problem with her eyes started back in January when the kids brought home pinkeye from school. We all got it, and within a few days we had all recovered with the prescribed medication. It took Monique a couple of weeks to get rid of the same problem.

So far, since that time, she has had pinkeye three more times. The last time, she went to the doctor three separate times and each time they gave her a new prescription. One of the medications turned her eyes blood red – not bloodshot, you couldn’t see any white in her eyes at all.

This week she went back to the doctor and she sent her in for blood tests. I must admit, I’m starting to get a bit concerned.

It’s been a week of worrying and wondering what was happening to Twiggy, but she is finally getting back to normal. After eating some of the kids treats, then spending days on a restricted diet and a trip to the vet, she is running around happy again.